Menu

Tag Archives: Ranneko Plays

Last update I made after returning from Alghero. This update is being written just before a quick trip to Edinburgh. I worked the weekend in between which meant I had a couple of days where I was home alone. This means I got a lot of recording done, Syfro and I have finally finished Thimbleweed Park and the Ransistance is recorded up to episode 20.

I need to organise to do a few more recording sessions of Torment: Tides of Ranmenera, because that didn’t have the momentum behind it that XCOM 2 has had, but I think I am getting pretty close to the end of the current act. I am not entirely sure how much of the game is left. I know that I am near the original level cap but that game continues to visit interesting and strange territory.

At this point I hope to shuffle the channel schedule in october, it all hinges on me getting my act together regarding tips videos. I have scripts now! I just need to record the voice and find the footage.

The Ransistance has returned, ready to kick the Advent and their new allies off the earth or to die trying. At the time of writing this, I have recorded the first 7 episodes and it is remarkable just how many changes have been made. Firaxis have ensured that anyone who starts up War of the Chosen will encounter new content immediately. From a new cutscene that takes place before the previous opener, to more variations on gatecrasher, to many more changes on the strategic layer. I am having a blast playing it and probably would have recorded more were it not for a bout of illness followed by travel.

Firaxis has released a free demo that consists entirely of the photobooth, which means there is now a free tool anyone can use to create soldiers that can be imported into XCOM 2. This means I have revised the recruitment form. I have stripped out the overly long second page, if you want to be added you can either just specify a name and optionally a few other basic details. If you want a fully specified soldier, now you can create it yourself and then send me the file.

The Star Realms analysis videos continue, though feedback is, as usual, unfortunately limited. I got the typical dozen or so views I get for the first episode of a new series but the first episode this week has thus far received no traction. We will see how it does long term.

Currently, I release videos every day at midday, with the theory being that people who live in the same timezone as me can watch them at work, but I am considering trying a later release time to see if I can catch more people at a time where they might want to watch. My current thinking is to try shifting video releases by an hour, waiting a couple of weeks, comparing and repeating. So if a video seems to be out at an unusual time, that is probably why.

As a reminder, the Ransistance will return once War of the Chosen releases on the 29th of August. Firaxis has released a free demo that consists entirely of the photobooth, which means there is now a free tool anyone can use to create soldiers that can be imported into XCOM 2. This means I have revised the recruitment form. I have stripped out the overly long second page, if you want to be added you can either just specify a name and optionally a few other basic details. If you want a fully specified soldier, now you can create it yourself and then send me the file.

This week we finished up Massive Chalice. I had a great time with the game but it turns out it was a little shorter than I needed right now. The plan was to go from Massive Chalice to XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, but that doesn’t come out until the 29th.

Until then in the Mon/Wed/Fri slot, we are going to do something a little different. We are going to talk about Star Realms. Specifically, we are going to look at replays of Star Realms games and try to work out where the pivotal moments were. Where the initial mistakes were made that resulted in later victory or defeat. It is a little bit different from the other coverage of Star Realms on my channel and I hope people like it.

The Ransistance will return once War of the Chosen releases on the 29th of August. Firaxis has released a free demo that consists entirely of the photobooth, which means there is now a free tool anyone can use to create soldiers that can be imported into XCOM 2. This means I have revised the recruitment form. I have stripped out the overly long second page, if you want to be added you can either just specify a name and optionally a few other basic details. If you want a fully specified soldier, now you can create it yourself and then send me the file.

This week I am away! Camping on Gotland for Medeltidveckan (medieval week). As such there isn’t too much to discuss right now, I have been trying to record enough to stay ahead because I keep having small trips which is making it harder than I would like to maintain a buffer.

Time to start a new game on Saturdays, let’s go with one that takes place during the age of exploration, where the player has to embark on 6 expeditions and compete to gather the most fame. A very novel concept and definitely not one seen on the channel before.

On a more serious note, it was actually Curious Expedition that got me to play Renowned Explorers, a friend had been playing the former and I realised I owned a very similar game in the latter. I have played around with it a little bit before and watched my friend, which means I’m not going onto Curious Expedition completely blind, but I have never successfully finished a run. Hopefully I will learn over the course of the series.

As always, I am still soliciting feedback on the schedule I will move to once I have some tips recorded, and Curious Expedition is complete. Any feedback or suggestions are very welcome.

Here is the schedule I am currently angling toward:
Mon/Wed/Fri: Long Game Slot
Tuesday: Tips
Thurs/Sun: Shorter Game or Oneshot
Sat: Syfro Saturdays

This week marks the exit of Renowned Explorers. I finally managed to make it through a full set of expeditions, though frankly, the last one was a victory lap. It turns out that you really only need to get more than 2500 fame, I assumed that there would be some kind of incentive other than score chasing to keep me going on that last outing.

I know that there is still plenty of content left to see, and heck there is even another expansion I could buy, but I would prefer to move on to something completely fresh rather than slowly find new bits amongst the repetition.

So from the 30th, I will release episodes of something completely different on the channel. A let’s play of a roguelike, age of exploration game, where the goal is to gather the most fame possible over a series of expeditions!

Also, I am still seeking feedback on the proposed new schedule. Finishing up the Curious Expedition would have been the perfect time to implement it, but I chickened out, I think I should spend some time and prep 4 or 5 tips so that once I am ready I know I don’t have to worry about the well running dry only a couple of weeks into the new schedule. It would be a lot easier if I had people who regularly commented, as I could potentially use viewers to provide ideas for tips, but frankly, comments are rarer than hen’s teeth which makes any plans relying on getting them fairly foolish.

Here is the schedule I am currently angling toward:
Mon/Wed/Fri: Long Game Slot
Tuesday: Tips
Thurs/Sun: Shorter Game or Oneshot
Sat: Syfro Saturdays

As mentioned two weeks ago, technical difficulties have resulted in the temporary cancellation of The Ransistance and expanding Ranneko Plays Massive Chalice into its slot. This has had me thinking about how to handle my schedule from this point on.

The current schedule is a result of slow expansion in the number of videos I have been doing. I have slowly moved from Mon/Wed/Fri, to every weekday, and now every single day of the week. Each time I have added a day, it has been to add yet another game and to see how long I can keep it up.

Ultimately, I want to be able to handle long games in a reasonable timeframe, while not sacrificing the opportunity to do shorter series for shorter games at the same time. Ideally, I also want to leave one day a week free for more polished, short tip videos.

I want to return to tip videos for two reasons. Firstly, I like to highlight things that otherwise can be easily missed, especially if they can have a high impact on someone’s play. Secondly, my tip videos are by far the most consistently successful ones on my channel. I have I have been starting to gather ideas for those tips, but could always do with more. If you have any small tips for particular games that would fit in a 1-5 minute video I would love to hear them.

Here is the schedule I am currently angling toward:
Mon/Wed/Fri: Long Game Slot
Tuesday: Tips
Thurs/Sun: Shorter Game or Oneshot
Sat: Syfro Saturdays

What do people think? The final schedule probably won’t be implemented until Torment: Tides of Ranmenera wraps up, but any feedback would be appreciated.

The Ransistance wraps up prematurely this week. I was having a great time, but unfortunately, some interaction between mods and my install has resulted in significant instability. I have recorded a couple more episodes but then I encountered a landed UFO mission that always crashes XCOM 2 when I finish up the mission. I spent way too much time trying to either fix the initial interaction or at least avoid the crash trigger, and I found a way to partially avoid the initial crash, but even loading an old save and playing normally will have the game crash after 15 minutes or so. I could restart the campaign, but with War of the Chosen only a couple of months away, I figure I should way for that to release and start a campaign then. If you have signed up to be a soldier don’t worry I will export all of the characters so they will show up in the next run!

As a result, from next week Ranneko Plays Massive Chalice will run three times a week, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully, that will take us roughly to the release of War of the Chosen and then that will run 3 days a week.

This post was a little delayed. It turns out getting everything coordinated again after a break is trickier than I would like. I managed to bleed my buffer almost completely dry. My buffer lasted through to Saturday the 17th, and on that day I finally edited and uploaded the video for Sunday. I have managed to sort out a number of recording sessions though and, with some effort, I have recorded and edited episodes that will last through to the 28th.

It is still shorter than I would like of course. I will work on expanding it in the comings weeks.